Home insurance in a flat

Mikesww

Hi all.  Just want to get my head around insurance when we own (as leaseholder) our flat.  We are top floor with roofspace above us.  My understanding is any leaks in the roof or from tanks, equipment above us - owned by the freeholders will be covered by the buildings insurance that the freeholder has, or the freeholder, as well as any damage that comes from above. 

The thing I worry about is how we are covered for any damage coming down from our flat to below.  Eg washing machine leaking, accidental tap left on, sink overflowing, a pipe we own leaking, fire in our flat impacting below etc.  how would any damage be addressed?  We have contents only which includes public liability. 

From reading the policy, the public liability seems to cover things like if a plant pot blew off our balcony and hit someone etc.  

The freeholders building policy covers things like impact, storm, falling trees etc. 

Our contents policy covers all our ‘stuff’ plus accidental damage (red wine on carpet etc), plus public liability insurance. 

Can anyone let me know how this works, or if we should have some other kind of insurance to cover things like this? 

DullGreyGuy

99% of the time you are not liable for damage to the flat below... your pipe burst, washing machine leaks etc are not your fault (unless you've known it was leaking and carried on using it anyway). The times where you can be is if you put a nail through a pipe, are filling the bath and forget and go to the pub for 4 hours etc.

The sorts of incident you can be liable for will be covered by the public liability section embedded in your contents insurance which covers you for liability as the occupant of the property. 

On the buildings section its irrelevant because the whole building is covered by one policy so a burst pipe gets picked up by the Freeholder's Building if it impacts your flat, downstairs flat or both.

eddddy

Mikesww said:

The thing I worry about is how we are covered for any damage coming down from our flat to below.  Eg washing machine leaking, accidental tap left on, sink overflowing, a pipe we own leaking, fire in our flat impacting below etc.  how would any damage be addressed?  We have contents only which includes public liability. 

You're probably looking at this from slightly the wrong angle. In simple terms, you should look at it like this...

If any flat is damaged by escape of water from a leaking pipe, the flat owner can make an insurance claim on the insurance policy that covers their flat.

It doesn't matter whether the leaking pipe was in the roof space, in your flat, in their flat, in somebody else's flat, or in an attached building - they claim on the policy that covers their flat.

You would only have any liability for any damage if you did something negligent. Leaving a sink tap running causing an overflow might be considered negligent. But if a pipe in your flat starts to leak unexpectedly, typically, that doesn't mean you've been negligent.